World Briefing | Europe: France: Marie Antoinette's Oak Is Felled

The oldest tree on the grounds of Versailles, fondly called Marie Antoinette's Oak for the queen who enjoyed its shade before her beheading in the French Revolution, has been pulled down 324 years after it was planted. Measuring finally 115 feet high and 18 feet around, it fell victim to the same sun it had sheltered royal heads from, dying in the drought that accompanied a heat wave in 2003. Two tractors took less than two minutes to pull down the oak, which will be left on display in the gardens; a sapling of the same species, Quercus robur, will replace it. John Tagliabue (NYT)